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Have you ever heard of Adzuki beans before? I hadn’t either until the other day… Or at least I thought I hadn’t!

It turns out that Adzuki beans are actually the infamous “red bean” that you are always hearing about… Are you familiar with that super yummy red bean ice cream that you can find at most sushi restaurants? Yep… that’s the Adzuki bean! See? You have heard of them before!

These beans are also associated with some pretty amazing health benefits! They are known to play a key part in contributing to the ability to lose weight, to help with the prevention and management of diabetes, lower blood pressure, help increase energy levels, and they are also supposed to have major body-detoxifying effects!

So how did I come across these beans you may be wondering… Well, truth be told, I had to steal them! Yep, that’s right — straight out of the farmer’s field!

Well I better explain… My dad is a farmer and part of his business is combining crops for other farmers. This year when I was down visiting he told me about these Adzuki beans that he was going to combine, and how they were a Japanese bean that people eat… I was immediately intrigued and thought that I must get my hands on some of these beans! So we devised the perfect plan!

Since soy-a-beans are a more commonly grown and harvested type of bean in Ontario, we had to clean the combine out really well so no soy-a-beans would get mixed in with the Adzuki beans. Even though the combine was thoroughly cleaned out, the Adzuki beans could be rejected if even one single soy-a-bean is mixed in with them. As an extra precaution, you are supposed to combine a few Adzuki beans first, and then dump them on the ground to clean out the internal parts of the combine before continuing on to harvest the rest. It was these first beans that get dumped out into the field for waste, that I was able to steal!

My mom and I filled up a couple of zip lock sandwich bags, and I just couldn’t wait to cook these bad boys up for supper that night!

After doing a little recipe researching, I decided that I would use these Adzuki beans to make a more traditional Canadian dish – yummy baked beans! And today, I am going to share this yummy delicious recipe with you! And don’t worry, if you are unable to steal some fresh Adzuki beans straight from the field, you can usually purchase them in the international aisle of your local super market!

Prep Time: 60 minutes

Cook Time: 60 minutes

Serves: 6 – 10

What you’ll need:

3 ½ cups of Adzuki Beans

Water (Lots of this!)

1 medium, diced Onion

3 tbsp of butter

¼ tsp of minced Garlic

1 ½ cups of sweetened Apple Sauce

1 cup of Tomato Sauce

¾ of brown or golden Sugar

¼ tsp of Cumin Powder

¼ tsp of Salt

¼ tsp of Black Pepper

1 cup of cooked, diced Bacon (Optional)

Instructions:

Since my beans were fresh from the field, I had to sort through them, (perform my own QA/QC process), and then wash them. If you are purchasing your beans from the store, then you can most likely skip this step!

The next thing that you’ll have to do is soften your Adzuki beans before baking them. Add them to a big pot of water and bring them to a boil. Once they are at a boil, turn down the heat, and let them simmer for about an hour. These beans will soak up a lot of water, so make sure that you keep checking them and adding more water as needed.

While you are waiting for them to soften, you can prepare all of your other ingredients.

Sautee your bacon, onions, and garlic in the butter with the salt and pepper.

Once your beans are all softened, you have two options! You can choose to bake your beans in the oven, or if you have time and love crock pot cooking like I do, you can let them simmer in the crock pot. Since I didn’t have a lot of time that day, I choose to bake mine in the oven.

Either way you choose, you’ll need to set aside ¼ cup of the sugar, and then add all of the other ingredients into your baking dish.

Gently fold your beans into the other ingredients so that they don’t break or turn to mush.

Once everything is thoroughly mixed, sprinkle the remaining brown sugar on top.

Cover with foil and bake for one hour. Or let simmer in the crock pot for two to three hours.

These Double-Baked-Smashed!-Potatoes are probably my most favorite BBQ/dinner side! Not only are these potatoes super yummy, they are also very simple to make…. Just follow the recipe below for detailed instructions, and enjoy! 🙂

All you’ll need is:

8 Potatoes

1 package of Cream Cheese

1 small Onion, chopped

1/8 cup of Ranch Dressing

1 1/2 cups of Cheddar Cheese, shredded

1 Tbsp. of Margarine or Butter

1/4 cup of Milk or Cream

1/4 Tsp. of crushed Garlic

1/2 package of diced, cooked Bacon or Bacon Bits

Dash of Salt & Pepper

Fresh Chives for garnish

Step One: Wash and slice all of the potatoes in half, the long way. Place all potato halves face down on a baking sheet. Cover the bottom of the baking sheet with 1cm of water, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tip: If you are worried about the potatoes sticking, cover the baking sheet with a light coating of vegetable oil or butter.

Step Two: After potatoes have been baked and cooled to touch, use a spoon to carefully scrape out the potato skins into a large bowl.

Step Three: Add the milk and butter to the potatoes, and mash as you would in order to make “regular” mashed potatoes.

Tip: Reheat the mixture in the microwave to help with mashing.

Step Four: Set aside 1 cup of cheese and 1/2 of the bacon. Mix and mash — (or SMASH!), all of the other ingredients into the bowl, (except for the chives).

Step Five: Spoon the mashed potato mixture back into the potato skins and place them back on to the cookie sheet. Next sprinkle the remaining cheese and bacon on top.

Tip: I like to pre-mix the bacon and cheese in a separate bowl before sprinkling it onto the potatoes. This helps to ensure and even-distribution to each potato!

Step Six: Place the potatoes back into the oven bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or until the cheese is melted on top.